Show, Don't Tell

[Andy Black]

Show don't tell & Putting the first things first

I had a Skype call with a prospect last night.

He read some of my TFLF posts and liked that my focus was on simplifying things, and on bringing results NOT increasing traffic.

He told me the history of their AdWords account, and how an agency took over 18 months ago and traffic and spend was up, but they're not sure sales have gone up similarly.

He explained that they didn't have tracking and reporting nailed down yet, so didn't know what was working and what wasn't.

I told him that I think too many people get anal about tracking and reporting, and aren't doing the right things in the first place - like getting the right offer in front of the right people at the right time.

I then suggested he open their AdWords account and share his screen with me.

I then proceeded to show him where he was potentially missing out on sales. They were getting a lot of visitors who were looking for information, and not getting the visitors who were looking to buy.

I SHOWED him what search terms people were coming in on, and showed how there were none for a particular product they were selling. This was a big AHA moment for him.

He's so delighted he's going to get the owner of the business onto a call with me next week.

...

So what happened and what can you take away from this even if you're not an AdWords dude?


1) I explained something to him and he logically agreed with it. However, it wasn't until he saw how it impacted his own business that he GOT it. Cue widened eyes, sit back in chair, slow nodding. The AHA moment.


2) The above is a case of SHOW DON'T TELL. I showed him his bleeding neck. It's also a case of me showing him that I know my stuff.

I didn't tell him I was good. I didn't tell him who I'd worked for, what results I had achieved, how long I'd been in business. All that can come at the end of the call next week with his boss present.

The first thing I did was get to helping him - educating him, consulting immediately.

I did a SHOW DON'T TELL with my expertise.

("Add value first" anyone?)


3) A Skype video call helps them get to know you pretty damn quick. I don't mind that they see me in my playroom with kids posters behind me. It was 10pm. Anyway, if they have an issue they're not the client for me.


4) A screenshare where he looks over my shoulder can impress people with me whizzing round the screen. Except it can also lose them.

A screenshare where I look over their shoulder and direct them to type things in, click on buttons, unhide columns, sort by this and by that... well, that equally impresses people, but moves at their pace, AND gives them the skills to keep doing it after the call.

He now has the columns in his AdWords interface setup better. He now knows what they mean. He now knows how to drill down and replicate the work I did with him.

I suspect he might get his boss in and show him what we learned. (He literally had to go to a monthly management meeting straight after the call.) Maybe they'll all sit round the office excitedly spotting missed opportunities and "GETTING" it instead of thinking it's the preserve of a technical whizz.


5) *** IMPORTANT ***
He's not the decision maker, his boss is. But he's my champion in the business. If I make him look good, and promise him an easier and more successful future, then he's going to pull out all the stops to make it happen.

With his new skills he can show the company what I showed him. Maybe they're now wondering what else they can learn if that's what happened in one hour, of mostly chatting?

YOUR BOSS IS WHOEVER SIGNS YOUR TIMESHEET (or approves your invoice).

If I'm going to be working with this guy, and he's reporting into his boss, then his boss is NOT my client. This guy is.

Of course, I want to get on a call with the business owner and SHOW DON'T TELL his bleeding neck, and SHOW DON'T TELL how I can stem it, and how I can help them make more money.

...

What's your main takeaway?

What will you do differently going forward?

 

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[Andy Black]

You might be wondering what I meant by putting the first things first…

Get the right people to your offer first, before getting anal with tracking, attribution, and reporting.

Add value first, before trying to make a sale.

Show them their bleeding neck, before showing them how to stem the bleed.

 

[Nicoknowsbest]

He's not the decision maker, his boss is. But he's my champion in the business. If I make him look good, and promise him an easier and more successful future, then he's going to pull out all the stops to make it happen.

This really resonated.

I recently designed a brochure for a local company. We agreed on the budget and on my hours. The responsible took it to her boss, got it signed off and got me paid. Now, I accidentally ran off into a different (design) direction than expected and half of the budget was gone. Instead of making her go to her boss again and ask for more hours, which would have made her look bad, I swallowed my pride and took it all on me. The reason why it happened was lack of communication and briefing: just start designing and it will be alright. Well, it wasn't. But that was also my fault. I could have insisted on being briefed properly.

Lesson learned.

We finished the project, she is happy, looks great in front of her boss.

What about me?

She already asked me if I could help her with X, Y and Z in the next months.

Make them the HEROES.

Always.

 

[maverick]

This is also true when setting up new ventures. Don't tell anyone, just show them your progress. Action faking on progress threads is a good example of this.

 

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[Andy Black]

This is also true when setting up new ventures. Don't tell anyone, just show them your progress. Action faking on progress threads is a good example of this.

^^^ This!

"I'm taking action!"

vs

"Here's what I've done."

 

[Andy Black]

Someone reached out this morning asking to have a chat by phone.

I'd rather not get on the phone until I see it's a good fit, and sometimes written correspondence is clearer and gets to the point faster.

I can see a couple of his websites in his email signature so had a quick look at them and sent him the short email below.

"Show, don't tell." - Have a think about what I'm showing him without telling him.

Also think about how this will repel people who don't understand what I'm getting at, and attract people who do.

My email signature is simple, as is the website they go to if they want to check it out. Again, for those interested they can learn more and either self-select themselves out, or become even more keen to speak to me.

 

[Simon Angel]

Someone reached out this morning asking to have a chat by phone.

I'd rather not get on the phone until I see it's a good fit, and sometimes written correspondence is clearer and gets to the point faster.

I can see a couple of his websites in his email signature so had a quick look at them and sent him the short email below.

"Show, don't tell." - Have a think about what I'm showing him without telling him.

Also think about how this will repel people who don't understand what I'm getting at, and attract people who do.

My email signature is simple, as is the website they go to if they want to check it out. Again, for those interested they can learn more and either self-select themselves out, or become even more keen to speak to me.


View attachment 43552

I like the disclaimer at the bottom, lol. I assume something unfortunate happened for you to put it there..

 

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[Andy Black]

I like the disclaimer at the bottom, lol. I assume something unfortunate happened for you to put it there..

Lol, no. Nothing untoward ever happened. I just copied it from somewhere years ago.

 

[Andy Black]

Someone reached out this morning asking to have a chat by phone.

I'd rather not get on the phone until I see it's a good fit, and sometimes written correspondence is clearer and gets to the point faster.

I can see a couple of his websites in his email signature so had a quick look at them and sent him the short email below.

"Show, don't tell." - Have a think about what I'm showing him without telling him.

Also think about how this will repel people who don't understand what I'm getting at, and attract people who do.

My email signature is simple, as is the website they go to if they want to check it out. Again, for those interested they can learn more and either self-select themselves out, or become even more keen to speak to me.


View attachment 43552

A couple of emails later and he replied with this:

“I'll book a time on Wednesday next, however, i watched your YouTube workshop earlier, really impressed with your knowledge and skill, id be happy to hire you straight away if we could have a chat.”

 

[Dami-B]

Show don't tell & Putting the first things first

I had a Skype call with a prospect last night.

He read some of my TFLF posts and liked that my focus was on simplifying things, and on bringing results NOT increasing traffic.

He told me the history of their AdWords account, and how an agency took over 18 months ago and traffic and spend was up, but they're not sure sales have gone up similarly.

He explained that they didn't have tracking and reporting nailed down yet, so didn't know what was working and what wasn't.

I told him that I think too many people get anal about tracking and reporting, and aren't doing the right things in the first place - like getting the right offer in front of the right people at the right time.

I then suggested he open their AdWords account and share his screen with me.

I then proceeded to show him where he was potentially missing out on sales. They were getting a lot of visitors who were looking for information, and not getting the visitors who were looking to buy.

I SHOWED him what search terms people were coming in on, and showed how there were none for a particular product they were selling. This was a big AHA moment for him.

He's so delighted he's going to get the owner of the business onto a call with me next week.

...

So what happened and what can you take away from this even if you're not an AdWords dude?


1) I explained something to him and he logically agreed with it. However, it wasn't until he saw how it impacted his own business that he GOT it. Cue widened eyes, sit back in chair, slow nodding. The AHA moment.


2) The above is a case of SHOW DON'T TELL. I showed him his bleeding neck. It's also a case of me showing him that I know my stuff.

I didn't tell him I was good. I didn't tell him who I'd worked for, what results I had achieved, how long I'd been in business. All that can come at the end of the call next week with his boss present.

The first thing I did was get to helping him - educating him, consulting immediately.

I did a SHOW DON'T TELL with my expertise.

("Add value first" anyone?)


3) A Skype video call helps them get to know you pretty damn quick. I don't mind that they see me in my playroom with kids posters behind me. It was 10pm. Anyway, if they have an issue they're not the client for me.


4) A screenshare where he looks over my shoulder can impress people with me whizzing round the screen. Except it can also lose them.

A screenshare where I look over their shoulder and direct them to type things in, click on buttons, unhide columns, sort by this and by that... well, that equally impresses people, but moves at their pace, AND gives them the skills to keep doing it after the call.

He now has the columns in his AdWords interface setup better. He now knows what they mean. He now knows how to drill down and replicate the work I did with him.

I suspect he might get his boss in and show him what we learned. (He literally had to go to a monthly management meeting straight after the call.) Maybe they'll all sit round the office excitedly spotting missed opportunities and "GETTING" it instead of thinking it's the preserve of a technical whizz.


5) *** IMPORTANT ***
He's not the decision maker, his boss is. But he's my champion in the business. If I make him look good, and promise him an easier and more successful future, then he's going to pull out all the stops to make it happen.

With his new skills he can show the company what I showed him. Maybe they're now wondering what else they can learn if that's what happened in one hour, of mostly chatting?

YOUR BOSS IS WHOEVER SIGNS YOUR TIMESHEET (or approves your invoice).

If I'm going to be working with this guy, and he's reporting into his boss, then his boss is NOT my client. This guy is.

Of course, I want to get on a call with the business owner and SHOW DON'T TELL his bleeding neck, and SHOW DON'T TELL how I can stem it, and how I can help them make more money.

...

What's your main takeaway?

What will you do differently going forward?

I love this so much Andy.

It's a principle I practice myself.

I had a conversation with a friend about this and we both have varying views to this approach.

As a consultant I like to give people a "TASTE" of my ability and solution and even solve a problem before I get paid.

My friend on the other hand believes by doing this I'll get taken advantage off a lot and end up wasting a lot of time and resources dealing with the wrong people and I should focus on getting paid before committing to any form of solution providing.

There's certainly wisdom in her approach and I maybe say yes too much and I can be too quick to solve problems.

I guess right now I'm trying to figure out how to balance providing value but also not overdoing it to a point that I'm helping unpaid clients that it affects my paid work.

I definitely love my approach of providing value first and I don't really like the keeping all secrets to myself, but there's a balance to my approach I guess so I don't go overboard.

hoe do you balance it out?

 

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[Andy Black]

I love this so much Andy.

It's a principle I practice myself.

I had a conversation with a friend about this and we both have varying views to this approach.

As a consultant I like to give people a "TASTE" of my ability and solution and even solve a problem before I get paid.

My friend on the other hand believes by doing this I'll get taken advantage off a lot and end up wasting a lot of time and resources dealing with the wrong people and I should focus on getting paid before committing to any form of solution providing.

There's certainly wisdom in her approach and I maybe say yes too much and I can be too quick to solve problems.

I guess right now I'm trying to figure out how to balance providing value but also not overdoing it to a point that I'm helping unpaid clients that it affects my paid work.

I definitely love my approach of providing value first and I don't really like the keeping all secrets to myself, but there's a balance to my approach I guess so I don't go overboard.

hoe do you balance it out?

I hop on a call and hold nothing back for an hour.

At the end I bid them a cheery “Good Luck!”.

If they come back and want to hire me then great - we can talk.

If they want to do it themselves then that’s great too - they aren’t ready to hire someone and I’d rather know that after only chatting for an hour.

Either way, that’s one more person out there who can refer people to me in years to come.

 

[Andy Black]

Damn. I forgot I even had this thread.

Anyway. I did a 13s video about "Show, Don't Tell" ...

View: https://youtube.com/shorts/xYEEhRyF1qA?feature=share